Are you a Salepro or a Con? Chances are good you have no idea how to spot the difference, or know

Salesperson. The word will illicit pride in some and to other it’s one of the most cringe-worthy topics to ever bring to a dinner table. For some it’s a point of being able to find something right away and utilising them for finding something quickly and helping feed someones family on the side. For others, it’s a dreadful walk into a shark tank that could potentially result in them somehow getting screwed out of money.

Whatever your position is on them, there definitely are reason that there is such a broad spectrum of reactions to Salespeople. The reason for this is simply because there are two kinds of “Salespeople” in this world, the first is the Salesperson, there to genuinely help others, the latter is the Conman, there to help only themselves.

Confession time, I’ve been both. It’s a fine line you have to walk as a Salesperson, the mantra that I received from a Business mentor at one time was the “Integrity was like your virginity, you only get one chance to lose it, and you know when you’ve lost it.” The good news about that, there is something you can do about that and I’m hoping this article helps those who might be in a “Conman position” pull their heads from their asses and re-align the cause of the incredibly noble profession this wonderful career can be!

Salespro or Con — Principle #1: Genuine help

The first rule, and this one is at the core of every truly invested Salespersons mantra is the notion of helping someone. You see, the Salesperson is genuinely interested in helping others get their products, own their products, how the products could ultimately shape their lives for the better, it helps their families, grows other peoples incomes, saves other Businesses money and grow their profits, helps people develop Business through multi level marketing, and shapes their everyday lives for the better. It’s the difference between wanting to help someone because you know, deep down, that the best solution for them is going to be in ensuring that they own your product because you truly know, that no matter the expense, they’re going to thank you one day!

The conman on the other hand, not all that interested in making sure that the product they are going to sell is actually going to make much of a difference for better in the lives of the prospect, and doesn’t really care if it makes it much worse. The example of a used car lot the does excellent re-conditioning on their vehicles before putting them on display, they want to make sure that the next person who drives the vehicle they stamped their names on is going to last AT LEAST a few years before anything goes wrong with it, and if there is something wrong with it that they have no time to fix, then the customer is aware of that before they make the purchase off the line.

On the other hand there is the car lot that burns and turns vehicles so quickly that they have no time to inspect them, no time to make sure they’re up to shape, and is completely unwilling to do anything about it when something goes wrong in the vehicle.

This is a later rather than sooner model, eventually, something will happen to the Business over the long term, word spreads that they sell crap, and ultimately the owner or the Salesperson is left wondering why it is they don’t have any repeat customers. Why they have to keep searching for new Business, why they have to keep prospecting and why they feel like they’re spinning their tires years after they started out in the industry.

I was in a situation in my selling career where I had no problems collecting contracts, I was the Business Development Manager of a firm that was small, but realistically, it was ground level, it was very exciting. They had been around for 11+ years which made me excited because they had survived through that 10 year glut most Businesses don’t make it through. What had me concerned was why the Business only had 3 employees working for it at the time. Before I got hired on I asked myself “Why a firm, that had been around that long only had 3 people working for it.” But I ignored my better judgement and I moved on.

Fast forward 3 months, after collecting a rather large sum of contracts, signed deals, and cheques from customers based on the promises I was trained to deliver, I found out pretty quickly what was going on. You see, I was talented at closing deals, selling the firms products, and moving forward with my day. The firm on the other hand, had a bit of a problem actually fulfilling the orders in the timeline that they had promised both me and the customers and ultimately it left a bad taste in EVERY customers mouth, delayed deliveries, or cancelled orders. 3 more months of this after suggestions were made to bring attention to the problems that were coming to light and seeing absolutely no results, I packed up my bags and I left.

I couldn’t consciously represent a company and a product that was leaving EVERY customer it touched absolutely miserable before the contract could have been fulfilled. It just wasn’t going to work for me to keep doing that to people, the company has no problems running like that to this day, but I believe that a lack of competitors has ultimately helped keep that company afloat, one day, I’m hoping someone who can keep their word on the back end ultimately comes along and shuts the whole previous operation down.

Salespro or Con — Principle #2: Rapport and Interest

I’ve written articles on developing rapport in the past. The importance of rapport is paramount to your long term success in sales. It’s the first, and the most important sale in the selling process. It’s foundation of trust that all sales are built off of. But there is a tremendous difference between the Salesman and the Conman.

The Salesman in genuinely interested in the customers, who they are, their likes, their dislikes, what they want, who they are, what has led them to that point, they’re truly invested in their customer and who they are. It’s important because it helps them develop future Business with that client and ultimately leads them growing their Business through a book of strong supporters down the road.

The conman on the other hand, really couldn’t be all that bothered. They’re only interested enough to make one sale. You typically get this out of the “One sale sally” type salesperson. “The grass is always greener on the other side” is their typical mantra as they skip around from job to job never really concerning themselves with what impact that might have on the clients they serve over the long term. They really only get to know enough to make another deal, get another order, and get something else through the door at the end of the day. It’s never relationship based and purely transactional.

We live in a transaction based world and in order to have a successful Business, you need lots of transactions, lots of movement, and being careful not to spend too much time on one client in a given day so you can serve more people all come into play, but not getting to know someone on an intimate level before closing up a deal is, and always will be a big problem in my books. If your customer wants to take an hour just to bullshit, let them do it! Make it work! I promise it’s only going to pay dividends for you in the long term.

Salespro or Con — Principle #3: Product Ownership

The biggest indicator of a Salespro vs. a Con is the ownership or the pride of ownership in the products they sell! The Salespro loves the product they sell, they know it inside and out, they know it so well they even own it!

I remember a story of a young man I was trying to help boost his warranty sales on the product he was selling, before I could even ask him a couple of qualifying questions, he began pitching me his product assuming that there was something in what he was saying that would somehow magically help boost his numbers. I patiently listed for about 3 minutes before I realized that there was no belief in his voice, he was missing a key ingredient, there was a conviction missing in what he was presenting so I simply asked him…

“How much warranty, out of curiosity, do you own on your products?”

He looked at me rather stunned, sat back in his chair with a puzzled look on his face, and said “Well… I don’t buy warranty…”. Suddenly a lightbulb had gone off in his head and before I could speak he looked down at the table and said “Oh…”. Right there, he had discovered that he was missing one key ingredient. He was missing the “ownership factor.”

The one thing about owning your product, whether you can afford it or not, is simply the ability to present conviction to your clients. The ability to look someone in the eye with complete and utter belief in your presentation because you know the struggles they face when it comes to product ownership and have already mapped out all of the objections they could hand you, because at one point in your career, you’ve had to overcome them yourself, to your own restrictions, and justify your own purchase to your family.

The con on the other hand, they really don’t care. They couldn’t be bothered owning their product, because there’s a good chance that they are selling a product that they know is never going to benefit themselves, why would they own it? If they manage to get the sale, great, another sucker in the bag, if they don’t they couldn’t be bothered by it too much because it’s simply a matter of moving onto the next person!

Look, if you want success in your chosen field, or need to boost some numbers, it’s never going to happen until you’re willing to invest in your own products. Live with them everyday, get a feel for them, what they can do, how they function, what kind of rates you get, what kind of use you get, whether or not it truly saves you money, all of the features, advantages, and benefits that the product has to offer!

Salespro or Con — Principle #4: Conviction & Purpose to Close

I’ve been going over a variety of things that Salespro and Cons do and before I get too carried away, I’m going to take a moment to actually write about closing a sale. There’s one thing I need to address:

THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING WRONG WITH BEING PUSHY IF YOU KNOW IT’S WHAT IS BEST FOR YOUR CLIENT!

Great, now that we’ve gotten that craziness out of the way, neither a true salespro nor a con has a problem with being being aggressive on the close. I’m going to confront a cold hard truth, if you’re not willing to push, you’re going to have a small wallet and that’s definitely not what sales is about. You want to be rewarded for your hard work, and money is one of those things that just gets you everything you want in life. Anybody who has said to me “Money doesn’t buy happiness.” Is usually 1 of two things… 1. Completely broke. or 2. Hasn’t used money to advantages it represents and the things you can provide that ultimately make you happy.

Even if you’re some monk in the mountains, knowing that you can transition back into the real world because you have a fat sack of cash must be a sobering feeling if there truly ever was an emergency that required a little more than pocket change!

The difference between the Salepro and the con is “the end” that they are ultimately pushing for. I don’t mind being wealthy, never have, never will, I don’t mind having a healthy savings account either, or the ability to invest in almost whatever I want, or go on vacation anywhere at anytime. It has come off the back end of an incredible amount of pushing my products and services into the marketplace. But it’s also been pushed with happy client coming off as a result of me helping them make that decision.

Being a Salespro does not mean you don’t have to be pushy, it doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t overcome 1000 objections. Quite the contrary, a Salepro who is truly convicted in their product, their service, their policies, procedures, systems, follow-up, and everything they represent in their industry is going to want to push their product into the marketplace because they know that if their friends, family, and potential future clients shop anywhere else for the same service, they’re going to be missing out on something. They are going to feel like they’ve conned them out of something by not helping them own their product.

If you’re truly convicted in what you represent, you’re going to push it, and you’re going to push it hard, and you’re going to have thousands of loyal, satisfied and repeat customer coming back time and time again without nearly as much hesitation.

Now the con can also be pushy, and unfortunately this push, has pissed off a lot of people and giving the genuine Salespeople in the world a really bad name. It’s created a lot of troubles for people who are genuinely invested in their product and service. It’s given the industry a bad rap. The conman doesn’t really care, once again, what their product or service actually does for the client but simply pushed the product only to benefit of lining their own pockets with the ever attractive dollar.

Get convicted about your product, find a way it can help people, be honest with your clients about the shortfalls of the product, or move into an industry you can represent!

Salespro or Con — Principle #5: Follow-up

One of the greatest ingredients in a Salespro arsenal is their ability to follow-up. Follow-up on services, follow-up on missed orders, follow-up on happy customers, follow-up on unhappy customers, follow-up is a tremendous key to growing your Business and something that must be practised and exercised in order for you to become great in this industry, there is absolutely no way around it!

True Salespro have absolutely no problems following up on orders whether the first interaction was good or bad because they know this, they know the power that it holds. Truth is, most cons have no problems following up on orders either! The difference between the two is actually rooted in the follow up afterwards!

The Salespro follows up even after they’ve made the sale, they want to mak sure that there clients are happy with their new purchase, that they are going to get their orders on time, that they’re actually getting use out of it! I utilize a “3,30,3 Rule of follow-up” with every single one of my customers. On top of using thank you cards, and thank you emails to really make an impact, I will personally call each and everyone of my clients out of discipline to make sure they’re happy 3 days after they got the product, 30 days after they have their product, and 3 months after they have their product. I’ll explain this more in another article why this is so important! But it’s important to make sure that you’re clients is happy, so they keep coming back for more!

The con on the other hand, has no interest in doing any kind of follow-up because in reality, it’s a lot of work, and they simply hold onto a hope and prayer that the customer is happy and keeps coming back. There is no real strategy to REALLY effect change in the minds of their clients and really influence the experience that they are having!

Salespro or Con — Principle #6: Customer Complaints

Customer complaints can be either the worst enemy of a Business or a major goldmine if you handle it properly. Many times, companies have policies that sometimes need to be “bent” in order to make customers extraordinarily and sometimes we need to fire customers that are just a little too demanding, the return on investment isn’t worth the customers lifetime value. The deal might cost too much to justify the potential for returns later on.

There are a couple of lessons however I’ve learned over the years that make a serious difference between a Sales Professional and Conman and the first is the willingness to actually see a customer complaint through.

You see, the Sales Pro can see a customer complaint for the opportunity it can be. For taking a little hit maybe on commission or profits (always maintain your profit lines — another article for another time.) or going out of there way to provide an extra level of service that they know is going to make a difference in their customers life. Why? Because they understand the concept behind lifetime value. Lifetime value is the calculation of how much profit a business will typically see from a customer through the resale of their products. Why does a Salespro actually care about having customers come back over and over again? Because they plan on actually being around to service the lifetime value of a client! Build their clientele! And grow their Businesses!

Now the con on the other hand, again, going back to the “fast buck model” isn’t interested in the lifetime value because typically they’re not going to stick around long enough to care. Or worse yet, they’re going to be out of there as soon as they make their money! Customer complaints don’t matter to them at the end of the day because their industry is about burn and turn, nothing more nothing less!

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Matthew Gourley is the Founder and Owner behind SalesTrainInc.com Business Services! He specialises in growing Companies profits and their Salespeople commissions by fine tuning all Marketing platforms, and training people how to convert the interest built off that advertising platform! He can be contacted at matthew@salestraininc.com